Why is the institution of corruption whistleblowers not yet fully operational? ACREC experts offer their answers and recommendations.
Last week, the Anti-Corruption Research and Education Centre of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy presented a fresh study with key recommendations for restarting the work of the NACP in the field of whistleblower protection. What’s important, these tips follow the comments previously provided by Transparency International Ukraine experts.
ACREC analysts suggest that the new NACP leadership reconsider its approach in particular to the Agency’s interpretation of whistleblower protection legislation, for example, in terms of avoiding the narrowing of the definition of a whistleblower. The researchers also drew attention to the factors posing a threat to the anonymity, security, and efficiency of the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal.
The experts stated that the Portal only partially complied with the Guidelines on the processing of personal data within the framework of the procedure for reporting violations in the European Union. There is a separate lack of visualization for the user that the Unified Portal is an internal and not a regular channel for reporting possible facts of corruption or corruption-related offenses.
In the future, the NACP needs to conduct a comprehensive communication campaign to popularize the Portal among potential whistleblowers and inform anti-corruption commissioners about its capabilities.
“The policy brief from our ACREC partners is actually a roadmap of measures that the NACP can take to enhance the protection of corruption whistleblowers. They include not only training on the use of the Unified Reporting Portal, but also improving it and the relevant explanations of the NACP. The Agency’s work with whistleblowers is important and requires attention,” said Oleksandr Kalitenko, legal advisor at TI Ukraine.
Transparency International Ukraine experts are convinced that the Agency’s continued inaction may lead to an increase in the number of cases of violating the whistleblowers’ rights, and in general, such a state of affairs may undermine public confidence in the work of the whistleblowing institution. Therefore, we hope that Viktor Pavlushchyk, the new Head of the NACP, will pay attention to this before connecting the new public authorities to the Portal.
The policy brief from our ACREC partners is actually a roadmap of measures that the NACP can take to enhance the protection of corruption whistleblowers. They include not only training on the use of the Unified Reporting Portal, but also improving it and the relevant explanations of the NACP. The Agency's work with whistleblowers is important and requires attention
Oleksandr Kalitenko
